Oh, I thought of so many good things to write about today, and by the time I got home, I had forgotten them all.
At least it appears that You liked my podcast, and in the face of any other evidence, it’s enough to encourage me to do another one. I won’t promise when or anything, since everyone should know by now that I hardly ever come through.
Moving on.
All this rain in Sacramento has the rivers and creeks flowing to capacity, and thinking about creeks made me think about being little. So, in a round about way, I remembered what I wanted to talk about.
The summer we moved into our house here in Fair Oaks, I ended up spending a lot of time with my little sister. I was nine, or about to be, so we were allowed to roam the neighborhood on our bikes, provided we didn’t cross a major street (who would allow their kids that much freedom these days?).
So my sister and I would head out on our bikes, exploring our new neighborhood, and we found a lot of awful cool things. For starters, there are two elementary schools, a park, and two creeks running through our neighborhood. And the creeks were the best part.
One of them runs right behind our house, and we were never allowed to play in it because there were “things” in the water that were harmful. At least, that’s what our mum told us. The creek that our house backed up to was overgrown, and everyone along the creek had fences that ran right to the creek slope.
However, not so with the other creek. The other creek was cleared, and it seemed more like a creek running through a park, with the way people had gently rolling lawns that they mowed every weekend. My dad explained to me numerous times that property lines for each house actually ran to the middle of the creek, and the reason they had a large space between their fences and the creek was an “easement” for the county to be able to go in a do things with the creek as needed. Whatever it was, I thought it was awesome.
I was always jealous that these people had back gates that led from their backyards to the creek. I always wished we had one in our backyard, never mind that our over grown creek wasn’t anything to look at.
So, this creek with the beautiful easement is where K and I would spend our time. We’d pack a picnick, and go hang out under an overpass that crossed the creek. Right next to the overpass was a blackberry bush, where we’d pick berries after eating lunch. We could spend all day there. I think sometimes we both imagined running away and living there.
I was thinking about the creeks today because on the radio this morning they were talking about creeks running at capacity, and when I was little, the creeks were never that high.
If I remember, sometime this summer I’ll try to go take pictures of the places we used to hang out as kids. I haven’t been there in years, and I do wonder how it’s changed.
—”I Miss You,” Blink-182: Blink-182
